Permanently closed is a documentary that investigated the mysteries surrounding the institution Letchworth Village. This now abandoned lot, has had a lot of attention in the past years. In the recent years it was featured on the Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures, an episode of the TV series of Elementary, and was one of the main inspirations for season 2 of American Horror Story: Asylum. Most famously, Letchworth was featured in Geraldo Rivera’s expose “The Last Disgrace” in 1972. The shows focused on Letchworth’s reputation for experimenting on its patients as well as mass mistreatment of patients. Many believe that there are many unsettled souls still haunting the grounds in Rockland County. Permanently closed will show audiences the entire story behind this institution and its chilling legacy that continues to captivate audiences today. Since its opening in 1911 Letchworth Village was clouded in mystery. This expansive residential institution sprawling over 130 acres housed the physically and mentally disabled of all ages from newborns to adults. In the beginning it was seen as a model institution for the treatment of the developmentally disabled, a humane alternative to high-rise asylums. It was seen to have great potential and …show more content…
was a great improvement from past facilitates. As time went on, Letchworth was regarded for it numerous advances in medicine. In February 1950, the first polio vaccine was tested on an eight year old boy. The test was successfully administered and then given to more patients. Despite its many advances, Letchworth Village is known for its rumors surrounding mistreatment of patients and horrific experimenting that continued long after its closing.
Most of the patients were under the age of 16. Visitors observed malnourished and sickly children. Many of these children were subject to testing and cruel neglect. Patients were forced to live in cramped dorms due to overcrowding. By the 1950s there were over 4,000 patients living in Letchworth. In the 1940s photos were taken that revealed the true nature of what was going on behind closed doors. It was not until Geraldo Rivera’s expose in 1972, that people started to pay attention to what was happening at institutions across the country, especially at
Letchworth. After its closing in 1996, there have many accounts by locals and those who visit the abandoned site that there is a sense of paranormal activity. The buildings now sprawling with ivy and overgrown brush, the insides house only rusted furniture, pictures still hanging on the wall as if everyone just vanished. A small cemetery is the final resting place of all the unnamed patients. “Those Who Shall Not Be Forgotten” is etched on a stone with tick marks for all of the patients that were buried there without a proper tombstone. Considering the spooky atmosphere of this dilapidated place and its history of human suffering, it is not too farfetched to consider that the grounds are haunted. There is a long list of weird, unexplainable phenomena that has occurred since its closing. Numerous accounts of furniture scrapping the floor, heavy footsteps, and knocking and tapping on the walls are too much to ignore. Many account hearing children giggling and other speak of a more sinister presences. Permanently Closed will take a closer look into the history of why Letchworth Village is a place of so many unsettled souls. The positives and the negatives, its advances and its many setbacks. This documentary using many eye witness accounts as well as an interview with Geraldo Rivera himself, will help open many people’s eyes to the people, experimenting, and mistreatment that still has a looming presence over the area today.
From the moment Lucy Winer was admitted to Kings Park on June 21, 1967, following several unsuccessful suicide attempts, she experienced firsthand the horrors of mental institutions during this time period in America. As Lucy stepped into Ward 210, the female violent ward of Building 21, she was forced to strip naked at the front desk, symbolizing how patient’s personhood status was stripped from them as soon as they arrived into these institutions. During her second day at Kings Park, Lucy started crying and another patient informed her not to cry because “they’ll hurt her”. This instance, paired with the complete lack of regulations, instilled a fear in Lucy that anyone at this institution could do anything to her without any punishment, which had haunted her throughout her entire stay at Kings Park. Dr. Jeanne Schultz was one of the first psychiatrists to examine Lucy and diagnosed her with chronic differentiated schizophrenia. In an interview with Dr. Schultz decades later, Lucy found out that many patients were
High Sky Children’s Ranch first opened their doors in 1963, when a woman named Joan Nobles was concerned about girls who had no absolutely no place to go. She was the president of the PTA when she heard a young juvenile probation officer speak about the need for a home for those girls that had no where to go. She, along with many others, worked for three years to open the first home. In 1963 the first home was opened and housed five girls (High Sky Children’s Ranch, 2011). In 1985 High Sky changed their license to accept both boys and girls, which enabled them to keep sibling groups together. In 1987 High Sky was relicensed as a treatment facility to work with kids who were more traumatized or needed a higher level of care and was later licensed as a Therapeutic Foster Care. These programs help i...
In Mary Downing Hahn’s “The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall,” Downing Hahn shows that sometimes the best of people who deserve the best end up getting the worst. In this companion book, you will see the difference between the two main characters; Sophia and Florence. You will also find out about the setting and what dangers can go on at Crutchfield Hall. You will see what something in the book symbolizes, including the cat and the mice, and the cold. I will show you Sophia’s mind and her thoughts, and what she is planning on doing, more about her death, and possibilities of what could’ve happened.
In examining and learning from her story through the lens of Doctoring, we can inform our own practice and However, many or most of the people involved in her story felt as though they committed no wrongdoing, and indeed likely felt good about providing care for a poor black woman. It is a little frightening to consider that we might one day do things as physicians that will be considered as wildly unethical in our practice as the actions of researchers and physicians that affected Henrietta and her family. It is certain that we will be affected by our biases, that we will fumble, and that we will make many mistakes as we try to find our footing as physicians. However, I would argue that the crucial first step lies in the words that Rebecca Skloot used to begin her retelling of Henrietta’s story.
Ghosts and goblins are lurking around every corner. Mysterious creatures are waiting to jump out of every shadow. The boogieman and his accomplices are posted under the bed and in the closet, counting the minutes until children go to sleep so that that can attack and scare the life out of them. We all grew up with these fears in the back of out heads. There is always at least one person and one building in every town, whether it be small or large, with a story... a history of mysterious, paranormal behavior. The little town of Canton, Missouri is no different.
They needed healthy men, and I am somewhat healthy, so I just had to do it. I had to talk to others to see what is happening in their point of view, and I also had to see their opinion about these things. I figured that I needed to talk to a man named Dr. Waldo. Since he was a doctor, I asked him what was happening, what he saw. The look on his face was unbearable to stand, anyone who looked at him would be terrified at what he was about to say. He told me that it was a terrifying experience, and that 1,800 to 2,500 men were dying in December-June, he also said that there were many diseases such as smallpox ( when Dr. Waldo was experimenting, I was one of them to be experimented on, and now I’m immune to it), dysentery, typhoid, and pneumonia.(Busch, 147) By then, even I was shaking, I knew that it would be hard, but it was a risk that I was willing to
The first hospital was built in a quiet farming town later named Kings Park. In 1885, officials of what was then the city of Brooklyn established the Kings County Farm on more than 800 acres to care for the mentally ill. Kings Park was only a small part of what would later become a giant chain of connected mental hospitals on Long Island, each with over 2,500 patients at one time.(Bleyer,2)
Both 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale are dystopian novels, however, these books are a lot more complex than mere portrayals of dystopia, it can be argued that they are explorations of dystopia rather than mere portrayals. In order to explore dystopia, many themes must be considered, such as; feminism, love and repression. Nonetheless, it is apparent that human characteristics are the driving point of the two novels, predominantly, the depiction of human resilience. In an imperfect world, it is important to have certain qualities which, if plentiful, it can mean success, whereas if it lacks, it can mean failure, this characteristic is resilience. The protagonists in each novel, Winston in 1984 and Offred in The Handmaid’s Tale face situations which leave them both in disarray, and both even consider suicide. The authors tentatively highlight human resilience, its limits and most importantly its strengths into the two novels.
Windham, Kathryn Tucker, and Margaret Gillis Fish. “The Face in the Courthouse Window.” 13 Alabama ghosts and Jeffrey. 1969. Reprint. Huntsville, Ala.: Strode Publishers, 1976. Print.
Award-Winning author Laura Hillenbrand writes of the invigorating survival story of Louie Zamperini in her best selling book, Unbroken. Louie Zamperini was an ambitious, record-breaking Olympic runner when he was drafted into the American army as an airman during World War II. On the mission that led him to embark on a journey of dire straits, Louie’s plain crashed into the Pacific Ocean, leaving only him and two other crewmen as survivors. Stranded on a raft in shark infested waters, without any resources or food, and drifting toward enemy Japanese territory, the men now have to face their ultimate capture by Japanese, if they survive that long. Louie responded to his desperation with dexterity, undergoing his plight with optimism and confidence, rather than losing hope. In this memorable novel, Hillenbrand uses a vivid narrative voice to divulge Louie’s tale of endurance, and proves that the resilience of the human mind can triumph through adversity.
The authors name is Audrey Young and she has received her bachelor’s degree in history from University of California, Berkeley, and an M.D. from the University of Washington, in Seattle. She is board certified in internal medicine and was Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington. She currently practices hospital medicine at Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland, Washington. She has also published several other books such as, House of Hope and Fear: Life in a Big City Hospital, published in 2009, and
Asylum: A History of the Mental Institution in America. Dir. Sarah Mondale. Stone Lantern Films, Inc. 1988. Film.
The new asylums. Dir. Miri Navasky. Perf. Sigmon Clark, Fred Cohen. WGBH Educational Foundation: 2005. Film.
A combination of overcrowding, state budget cuts, and indifference resulted in inhumane conditions. Geraldo recounts the shocking smell upon first entering the institutions, it “smelled of disease, death, filth, urine and feces” he calls it ''the defining moment of ...
How do people go missing? Well, there are many explanations to this question. Kidnappings, disappearing by choice, death at sea, running away, and so many more things can answer how people go missing. However, maybe there is a more important question. Why do people go missing? A child goes missing in the United States every 40 seconds. With adults and children together just in the United States that equals about 2,300 every day and over 800,000 every year. The worldwide estimate is that over 8,000,000 people go missing annually. Most of the cases are resolved, but not all of them. “So at the end of 2012, of those 661,000 minus the canceled, we had 2,079 cases that remained at the end of the year unresolved.” explained Todd Matthews, the director of communications of the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.